Securing USDOT funding for Picadilly interchange project to catalyze development

As development in Aurora pushes forward, infrastructure improvements are essential.  A new interchange at I-70 and Picadilly Road and an accompanying extension of Picadilly Road between Smith Road and Colfax Avenue is needed to provide a vital transportation connection between existing industrial parks and future commercial and residential developments.  The project will ensure that key primary employers and employment hubs are efficiently linked and contribute to the regional, state, national, and even international economy.

To make this happen, both public and private funding was required.  In 2017, 2018, and 2019, the City of Aurora applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for a $25 million Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) Grant for the $56.6 million project.

We collaborated with the City of Aurora on its grant application each of the three years providing information and local and federal advocacy.  We gathered letters of support from private sector stakeholders including our member organizations, contributed our own letter of support, and in 2019, coordinated a meeting for private sector attendees with USDOT while in Washington, D.C. on our sister organization Accelerate Colorado’s Business Mission.

In November 2019, USDOT announced its BUILD Grant award recipients which included the City of Aurora’s Picadilly Interchange project.  The City received the full $25 million request for funding, the maximum amount per project under USDOT’s BUILD multimodal surface transportation grant program, making the project one of only six projects in the entire country to receive this amount.

Construction commenced in 2021 and is slated for completion by 2023.